Bulldogs Finish 12th at Gopher Invitational

WAYZATA, Minn. -
The Bulldogs dropped one place Sunday, shooting a 306 to finish the Gopher Invitational in 12th place. They finished only one shot behind Iowa State and three behind SMU. Yale's round of 306 was its best of the tournament, after rounds of 307 and 313 on Friday and Saturday respectively. Texas and LSU tied for the team championship with scores of 872 (+8), but the Longhorns were awarded the championship trophy by a tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was awarded based on the cumulative score of each team's fifth-place finisher.

Rain and wind plagued the Bulldogs all day as they tried to finish out the tournament. Sophomore Thomas McCarthy finished off his successful tournament with another solid round, shooting 74 to finish tied for 11th and four-over-par. McCarthy played solid golf all the way through and coming into Sunday led the tournament in number of pars.

"This was such a great field," said McCarthy. "Many of the players that finished ahead of me are top players in the country. The winner was a preseason All-America. It's good to get to compete against these guys."

Most of the Bulldogs carded their best scores of the tournament Sunday. JuniorBen Wescoe shot his best round of the tournament, carding a birdie, three bogeys and 14 pars for a round of 74 (+2). Wescoe finished tied for 36th. Junior Seve Gonzales shot a round of 81 (+9) to finish the tournament tied for 60th. Senior captain Colby Moore and sophomore Michael Fader both shot rounds of 79 (+7) to finish in 62nd and 63rd place, respectively.

Mike Van Sickle of Marquette University won the individual championship with a finishing round of 72 (E) to finish the tournament three-under-par. Van Sickle set a new Gopher Invitational scoring record with his performance. Charlie Holland of Texas, David Lingmerth of Arkansas and Cole Peevler of Iowa all shot tournament rounds of 215 (-1), finishing in a tie for second. Texas and LSU's team score of 872 was the second-best winning score in tournament history.

"It's a disappointing start because we didn't play up to our potential," said Wescoe. "But we have two weeks off to prepare for our home tournament, and we have been playing very well on the Yale Golf Course."